File this under “How to change stu­pid peo­ple’s votes.”

LJWorld.com : Mys­te­ri­ous post­cards tar­get Schauner:

An anony­mous oppo­nent of City Com­mis­sion can­di­date David Schauner blan­ket­ed the city Thurs­day with a spu­ri­ous post­card attempt­ing to link the incum­bent to domes­tic abuse.

Schauner, who is in the mid­dle of a tight re-elec­tion bat­tle, denied all alle­ga­tions of domes­tic abuse and denounced the post­card as a polit­i­cal cheap shot.

“I don’t know what to tell you oth­er than it is an out­landish lie, per­pet­u­at­ed by some­one who is afraid I may win re-elec­tion,” Schauner said.

The post­card came in vot­ers’ mail­box­es six days before Tues­day’s gen­er­al elec­tion. The mes­sage on the post­card was cryp­tic. It includ­ed a pic­ture of Schauner and a Google logo, a pop­u­lar Inter­net search engine. The text said, “I thought I’d let you know what I found on the web about this guy.”

It then includ­ed the phrase “… David M. Schauner, Kansas Nation­al Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion, of Tope­ka, … for bat­tery of his first wife and had been divorced by his sec­ond wife. …”

A Google search of Schauner’s name with the phrase “bat­tery” turns up a doc­u­ment sum­ma­riz­ing a case in which Schauner was involved as an attor­ney for his employ­er, KNEA. The case men­tions bat­tery, divorces and a sec­ond wife, but Schauner’s only involve­ment in the case was as an attorney.

The post­card was signed by a Becky Kopeland. A search of phone records and vot­er reg­is­tra­tion records in Dou­glas Coun­ty found no one by that name. The return address on the post­card was Schauner’s home address.

There will be some sort of announce­ment tomor­row, at 3:30, at City Hall. The Post Office is inves­ti­gat­ing improp­er use of a pre­paid stamp, and some­one could get free trav­el down the road to Leavenworth. 

What’s fas­ci­nat­ing about the attack is that it abus­es Google’s pow­er, and peo­ple’s unwill­ing­ness to actu­al­ly read crit­i­cal­ly. Since Schauner had noth­ing to do with the crime, they could­n’t make any claim. Instead they said “Hey, if you search for his name and this crime, you’ll get a hit.” It’s simul­ta­ne­ous­ly bril­liant and idiotic.

After all, a search on George Bush and “draft desert­er” would turn up tons of proof. Also, Pope and abor­tion. What does that prove? Noth­ing. But this cheap, pet­ty slan­der will prob­a­bly change the votes of a cou­ple stu­pid peo­ple. For what­ev­er rea­son, these post­cards were only sent to female reg­is­tered vot­ers. I have some guess­es why they did that, but none of them are favor­able to anyone.

Schauner is one of two peo­ple endorsed by the Pro­gres­sive Alliance, and one of three endorsed by the Sier­ra Club. I plan on vot­ing with those endorse­ments, and I think you should, too. Schauner is a high school teacher and the lawyer for the Kansas NEA. 

The Pro­gres­sive Alliance quotes him say­ing “My com­pass for deci­sion mak­ing will be the good of the entire com­mu­ni­ty, not just a favored few.” Appar­ent­ly, that does­n’t sound good to “a favored few.”